Hydro Thunder Is Back!

Years ago when the original Hydro Thunder came out in arcade land, I was working at a local pizza place delivering pizzas. In the same strip mall the pizza place was in was a Buffalo Wild Wings and inside they had the arcade version of Hydro Thunder. I worked the lunch shift throughout the week and the other driver told me to go play the game.

Often we would find ourselves dead after the lunch rush, so we would both head off to BW’s to play a few rounds. More times than not the bartender, who knew us well, would come over to us and tell us that our manager called and is pissed and we should head back.

Shortly after, I heard it had been released on the Playstation. The day it came out I remember well. I had a hangover but forced myself to drive to Toys R Us to pick it up. I also spent the rest of the money I had on it. Hangover kicking hard, I still played that game all day long and enjoyed the hell out of it. When I got rid of my PS and moved up to a PS2 I still held on to that game and continued to play it. I didn’t keep many of my old PS games, but that one I held onto. I actually just got rid of it because I only have an Xbox 360 now and haven’t been able to play Hydro Thunder in several years. Even still, I miss the game.

Tonight I was playing on the 360 and just before logging off to do something else that wasn’t productive, I noticed I had one friend logged in. I normally don’t check to see what it is they’re doing or even who’s online, especially before I log off, but this time I did, and it was a surprise. A good friend of mine, John, was online and playing HYDRO THUNDER HURRICANE!

It’s a sequel to the original (it’s about damn time too) but it’s made by somebody other than Midway, which kind of sucks, but still, it’s about damn time.

I quickly downloaded the trial to see if I would like it and let me tell you, it’s everything that I’ve been wanting and a little more. Since it’s just the trial I can only play so much of it, but this is one trial I’ve downloaded that I will be buying.

Most of the same boats from the original are there, but only one track from the original was brought back and even it has been revamped and looks nothing like the original. This is the track you can play on the trial version, Lake Powell.

If you’re an old fan of the game, check it out. You’ll most definitely love it. It seems to handle like the last one did, but the graphics are amazing and you’ll even recognize the voices in it as well. There is one change that I like and that is jumping your boat. You no longer have to hit your breaks and then your boost to send your boat airborne. Just hit the X button and away you go.

With new game modes and an awesome looking online mode, I absolutely can’t wait to get the full game and continue playing. Unfortunately, it looks like I missed out on the sale they had. Right now it costs 1200 points to download the full version, which is about $30. It was 400 points. Oh well, I’m still going to get it.

I also checked out an article at IGN about it and the review of it was horrible. At first I thought, maybe I shouldn’t buy the game. But then I read the comments of the review and everybody says the guy who reviewed it should be fired. There wasn’t one bad comment about the game from the players.